Content start here
News

Students share stories from Gulf Coast

USC Gould School of Law • April 4, 2008
post image

Spring break trip to New Orleans is focus of lunchtime talk

—By Kendall Davis

Most twenty-somethings head straight to Cancun or Florida for spring break. 

The members of the law school’s Legal Aid Alternative Breaks Project do something a little different, and a little more rewarding. For the third year in a row, a group of USC Law students traveled to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to provide free legal aid and other assistance to residents affected by hurricanes.

A line of residents seeking federal Section 8 housing assistance
  A line of residents seeking federal
 Section 8 housing assistance

“What New Orleans brought to me was stories of hope, faith and community that I have never experienced in any other place,” said 3L Andy Miller, student advisor to the project.

“It was these trips that have made law school a defining period of my life. I will be more than a better lawyer because of these opportunities, and I feel that I understand what it takes to be a better person and to do my part to form a better community.”

Best described as a “student service experience,” the trip is initiated by students and for students as a way to practice hands-on public service. 

The LAAB project was launched in 2006, when concerned USC Law students organized a trip to the north Gulf Coast region to provide aid for victims and displaced residents of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The group returned in 2007, and made a third visit during this year’s spring break in March. 

Students volunteered at a Sierra Club clean-up
 Students volunteered at a Sierra Club
 clean-up
The work that the students performed been is part of a larger effort to rebuild an area heavily battered by tragedy and nature. As Louisiana Justice Institute volunteers, one of the objectives they had was to map a community hit by the hurricane to establish who was coming back, what their obstacles were, and whether legal aid could help residents.

Those who made the trip have posted a number of blog entries about the experience. Read more on the LAAB website.

Students also displayed photos from the Spring Break trip during the week of March 31 to April 4 in the east lobby of the law school. To request access to a full online gallery of photos, contact LAAB.

 An abandoned apartment building in the 9th Ward  A levee that collapsed after Hurricane Katrina has since been repaired
  An abandoned apartment building in
 New Orleans' 9th Ward
  A levee that collapsed after Hurricane
 Katrina has since been repaired
 USC Law students helped homeowners with repairs This New Orleans school remains damaged and abandoned
 USC Law students helped Gulf Coast
 homeowners with home repairs
 This New Orleans school remains 
 damaged and abandoned

Related Stories